McLaren F1 team goes conservative again with US GP tyre selection

Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli has unveiled teams’ tyre selections for the upcoming United States Grand Prix at Austin, for which McLaren has made another conservative choice.

The team was left on the back foot last time out in Suzuka, having picked too few sets of the softest compound tyre, and wound up having to deny claims that the unusual selection was a result of it forgetting to make a proper nomination.

At Austin, for which the tyre picks were submitted well before the Suzuka race, McLaren will be once more an outlier, having opted for a grid-low five sets of the ultrasoft tyre for both its cars.

Fernando Alonso will have six sets of the soft – the hardest compound on offer – which is one more than team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne and twice as many as any rival team’s driver.

Fellow Renault engine customer Red Bull is another team to make a conservative selection, with both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo taking on six sets of the ultrasoft, four sets of the supersoft and three sets of soft.

Championship leader Mercedes has given both of its driver seven sets of the ultrasoft and Ferrari has made the same number of sets available to Kimi Raikkonen, although Sebastian Vettel will have one more set of the purple-walled tyre.

Sauber, Force India and Williams have all picked nine sets of the ultrasoft for each of their drivers.